One of the largest selling points of a Chicago Olympic bid is the immense American television audience. It has always been one of the biggest factors in US bids for the games. But today, organizers of Tokyo's competing bid for the 2016 games, insisted that games in Japan would generate the biggest prime-time TV audience in Olympic history.
Speaking in Munich, Germany, Tokyo 2016's Deputy Director General, Hidetoshi Maki, said Olympics in Japan would take advantage of hundreds of millions of newly affluent Asians, some 3 billion within a 3-hour time zone radius of Tokyo.
Officials say the Olympic movement would reap a bonanza of new markets. "When you look at sponsor brand names, you can see that many Japanese companies support football, athletics, and swimming," he said. "This reflects how much Japanese people love sports."
The Japanese bid committee said in their presentation, that Tokyo's "geographic location provides great opportunity," to reach Asia's growing population, with almost three quarters of a billion TV homes in the 57 nations within the area, providing a potential television audience of 3 billion viewers.
"Asia's TV audience is not only large," said Maki. "It consists of Asia's newly affluent young consumers, who are highly receptive to new trends, products, and brands."
Maki also notes that as the world continues to struggle with a global recession, the Japanese bid is financially strong, with 23 of 34 venues already in existence.
